LA Continues Reviewing Hardship Exemptions

29 Medical Marijuana Hardship Hearings Set for Monday, June 29th

The Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will be holding a special meeting next Monday June 29, 2009 to hear 29 medical marijuana hardship exemption applications. Read more.
When: Monday June 29, 2009
Time: 8:30 AM
Location: Los Angeles City Hall
200 N Spring Street, Room 1060
Los Angeles, Ca

On June 22, Los Angeles’s mayor signed off on the revised Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) regulating medical marijuana collectives in Los Angeles. This revision extends the original ICO (aka- the moratorium) an additional 6 months and also removes the hardship exemption provision from the ordinance.

See ILLEGAL L.A. MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES LOSE EXEMPTION LOOPHOLE

FIRST HARDSHIP HEARINGS REPORT
On Tuesday, June 9, Los Angeles City Council briefly addressed hardship exemptions for 14 medical marijuana cooperatives in LA, denying all of them. The 14 cooperatives that were targeted were given only six days to prepare for the hearing, and reportedly some of them hadn’t received notice before it took place.

The next step will be notifying the building department to red tag the denied coops, who will be given a time frame to comply or shut down. A case must be filed and an appeals process is in place.

The council also voted to send to the city attorney a request to rewrite language closing the hardship release valve. Under the new draft ordinance dispensaries would not be permitted within 1,000 feet of places where children gather.

Although the council contends their actions are based on complaints, one collective said it hadn’t even opened when it was reviewed. Another reviewee was a grandfathered-in coop that had to move because of a DEA letter threatening their landlord with forfeiture proceedings.

Two years ago, the city passed a temporary moratorium on new clinics except those that qualified for a hardship exemptions.

See Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries could face closure, LA Times 6/6

View the hearings online.

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